Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story (12 page)

“You are a woman and you can’t vote. End of story. We told you last week. I hate to be rude to a woman, Miss Jolene, but you are trying my patience and I wish you would now leave. Leave any decision making up to your guardian. Mr. Etulio will vote in a way that will safeguard any concerns of yours.”

“Why, Mr. Cohen, I’m surprised at you! Mr. Etulio is no longer my guardian, he is now merely my accountant. I’ve turned 21 and now I do not require a legal guardian. I am a full citizen of our patriotic town, and I want to do my patriotic duty and vote.” She smiled sweetly again.

“This is outrageous and you are being downright nasty.”

“Dear Mr. Cohen; you are the mayor here. Well, at least until the next election.” One more big smile. “I do believe that our town law states that any changes in regulations must be posted for 30 days and then a public meeting must be held. That after that meeting, the complete new regulation must be posted for another 30 days, before a town-wide vote can be taken to pass or reject any such new regulation.” Now Jolene leaned forward on the table which she had been ever so slowly approaching. “Gentlemen, you do realize the elections are in 45 days. You have no time to change the regulations to add that only
men
over 21 may vote.”

They started to grumble, to scoot back chairs. The noise level in the room rose so that it could have been an auditorium full of restless students.

Jolene let her voice boom out, “If you do not add my name to the voters list, I shall have my lawyer sue the town and all of you personally!

“That, Gentlemen, is that. So make sure my name is on that list before you post it up in the town hall. Good day to you all.” She spun on her heel and walked slowly and with a straight back out of the room.

She hurried to an office a few doors down the street and busted inside and slammed the door shut behind her. She crumpled against the wall laughing out loud.

“What in the world…” Matt got up from his desk and walked over to help her stand up straight.

She was hiccupping with fading laughs. When Matt’s brown eyes saw the tears of laughter running down her cheeks he couldn’t help but grin.

“Oh, Miss Jolene, you didn’t just go over to the mayor’s office. You are really going to do this?”

“Matt, you should have seen their faces. They were all pale. You would have thought I hung them upside down and slit their throats!”

“You have too big of an imagination! What a thing to say.” He was chastising her and jovial at the same time. He couldn’t help but enjoy her happy spirit and the way she treated all people with respect.

“Then,” she hiccupped again. Started over, “Then I even had a chance to drop a hint that the mayor might not win the election.” Gales of laughter filled the room from both of them. “Oh, too bad I can’t get some other women to stand up and vote with me. I know they will change things, and I won’t be able to vote next year. If enough of us women, and good men like you, voted this year; we could really get a decent mayor in office and be one the first towns in America to actually give out equal rights. They do it in Australia and that country has not crumbled. If we really believe the things Lincoln stood for, we have to act like it. We can’t just say something then act another way.”

“Oh, I agree. But change comes slowly.”

“Well it shouldn’t. Why, I have such great ideas for how to make our country great, I should be the President!”

Hilarity hit them both and Matt lost all his dignity as they both slid to the floor in laughter at that grand idea.

~ ~ ~

Sue was leading the way. Trying to remember the hand signals Mick had taught her. The plan was for her to creep forward two or three houses at a time & then freeze. She was to look all around. The roofs, the windows, the yards; all over. She was to strain every bit of her enhanced eyesight. If nothing moved or seemed out of place, she was to signal a forward sign and then go back to looking while the group snuck up to her. That was in case their movement caused someone in ambush to move to get ready to shoot them. Then she was to go forward again and do it all over again.

This was going to take hours to get basically nowhere. But no one else had a better, or safer, plan. So Sue played advanced scout for the better part of a whole day. There had been a few scurrying forms she spotted. They had just held their place for a while, not moving until it seemed safe.

They had stashed their motorcycles in a non-descript shed, made a note of it so they could come back if/when they headed south in the spring. They now had all their supplies on the horses and were leading them. Trying to give them lots of little treats to keep them silent and patient as they crept forward.

They had passed the normal dirty bomb dead bodies and a few others that looked like they had been stabbed or shot. But nothing near the wild carnage that they had seen in Middlebury.

At the next crouching stop Mick whispered to the whole group, “We are going to have to think about where we can spend the night. I was thinking of finding a basement in a warehouse or something, starting to look now while we have plenty of daylight. Any other thoughts?”

Shaking heads.

“Ok. Sue, there is an old furniture building up ahead on the left. Doug, didn’t you say they usually have a basement to store extra stuff in?”

“Yeah,” came a quiet whisper.

“I think we would all love to sleep on a cushy couch or something. Let’s see if we can get in there, then see if the basement is set up so we can barricade ourselves in there. We will have to eat just these trail bars and stuff, no way can we risk making a fire or doing anything like that. I think we are going to have to bring the horses inside with us.”

“Agreed.”

Sue scanned the area; this was going to be a bigger jump forward because they were going to have to cross 4 lanes of deserted road to get to the furniture store. Just as she was in the actual motion of giving the ‘go ahead’ sign, a noise and light flared up maybe 10 blocks ahead and to their right.

They all froze.

Mick leaned into to her ear, “You were giving the go ahead, have you seen anything in the last few seconds?”

“No.”

“Then we have to go. Maybe whatever it is will distract anyone who may be watching now.”

They moved forward, crossing the street quickly. No one liked moving over that exposed ground. They all moved inside the store. Of course, the front was all glass; built so customers could see the newest furniture and newest styles and colors of fabrics. Now most of the glass was broken – much of the furniture had been looted. But the looting had not lasted long in any U.S. town. The deaths became serious, the need to loot was gone since there were few to impress with a big screen TV that didn’t get any signal. Since anyone left could get their own useless big screen TV or whatever luxury item, it really was useless to do any whole-scale looting of anything other than food and useful stuff.

With no lights on inside they felt less exposed. Anyone looking over from the far side of the street was going to be looking into the setting sun and into a dark building. There was only a block and a half on their side of the street because after that the land was gone and a magnificent lake stretched out to the far mountains catching the setting sun.

Lena had told them earlier this was Lake Champlain. And you didn’t say it like the bubbly drink! She hated the name, it was hard to say and too close to the drink. She would have picked a much more noble name for the big lake. It was almost as big as the other Great Lakes – but not quite. It had been named after the French explorer who ‘discovered’ it. Since I guess the natives didn’t count, even though they had been living and fishing on the lake for centuries before this Mr. de Champlain had come along. Lena made a vow to look up in some history books what the native name for the lake had been.

They quickly found some wide stairs down to the basement. It was a good thing the stairs were so wide, they were built this way to make moving mattresses and couches up and down easier, today they served to make it easier for the horses to pick their way slowly down. The horses were not at all happy about this new ground. A few snorted and refused to even try one step.

Mick knew the key. He smiled as he patted Lady. “I’m going to write about this and send this to your old man. He will be proud of you girl.” With that, and with full confidence of what was about to happen, Mick led Lady slowly down the stairs. Sure enough, as the other horses saw their spiritual leader-horse walking gingerly but surely down the stairs; they stopped fussing and followed their humans down also.

The basement was huge, it had only small windows very high up on the walls. It didn’t take long for the group to make a little barrier of dressers and tables to keep the horses on one side. Mattresses and chairs and couches were lined up against the far wall. Mick and Ed headed outside alone to round up something the horses could eat while the others spent the last few hours of daylight checking over the packs and straps that held the only possessions they had left.

Mick and Ed had not mentioned they had more in mind then just finding some hay or grain for the horses. They moved toward the noise and now what was obviously a fire. From the side of a building shrouded with the branches of a large shrub, they saw a small house was on fire. It was ringed by a group of people, both men and women. They weren’t acting wild, like insane. They were acting like little kings or punks. So that gave Mick the info he needed. Must be that though this place was not sinking into anarchy, it had settled into gang areas. The fire was controlled and must have been a sign to anyone who was not ‘in’ with the local gang that was controlling this area. They eased back into the shadows and took comfort that this gang seemed like it would be occupied with partying around the burning building for the rest of the night.

So that night went along as well as could be while so close to horses that were pooping at random. Going up the stairs in the morning was much easier for the horses. They all waited deep inside the building as Sue scanned the area.

Mick was getting edgy and excited about maybe making it to the National Guard base that day. It was going to be a relief to be part of a bigger camp. It would feel much safer. He hoped it would be. Lena had got him thinking about the many things that could go wrong with a career military man in charge of things.

They had been moving up close to the lake most of the morning. Mick felt it was a balancing out of risks. There may be more people wanting to be near the lake, but this way made it so they only had to watch for attacks and ambushes from three sides instead of four.

They were headed for a marina: lots of medium sized white boats were bobbing in the mid-morning sun. Mick figured they were near Echo Aquarium and the main tourist or activity spot along the lakefront in Burlington. That meant they would have to start to head inland, so a little east and north now, to find the National Guard. He was going to have to pause and check a local map he had picked up in Shelburne.

“HALT!”

They did. It was bellowed out with such authority that they all actually froze in place like statues.

“State your name and what you are doing here.”

Mick finally zeroed in on where the booming voice was coming from, a man in a U.S. Marine dress uniform was standing on one of the boats pointing a rifle at them.

“Private Buckner. Here to meet up with Major Morna.”

“Private Buckner, state your first name.”

“Mick.”

“Private, you are late. Move your group straight up the road. Stop in front of the aquarium. I’ll have men, civilians, sent to take care of your horses.”

“Right, uh, thanks…” Mick drew out his words in a way that was clearly asking this marine his name.

“Sergeant Mills. You can call me Sal tonight when I’m off duty.” It was nice to see a smile on his face. Also to know he was expected.

They moved off in the direction Mills had pointed. Doug crowded into Mick to whisper, “What the hell was that all about? Are they going to rob us? That was harsh!”

Mick laughed at him. “No. That was military. In fact, that was as close as that Sergeant could get to hugging me while on duty.”

Doug was looking at Mick with eyebrows drawn and a ‘you’re crazy’ expression.

Mick gouged him with a playful elbow. “Saying I’m late is a way of saying something like we’ve been waiting for you and were worried about you. Trust me.”

“Whatever.”

Lena and Ed were smiling. They were a little put off by the rough welcome too, but after listening to Mick, it made total sense to them.